ORNL names new deputy director for science, technology

Note: This story was updated at 3:40 p.m.

A new deputy director has been named at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Ramamoorthy Ramesh of the University of California in Berkeley will start as the lab’s deputy director for science and technology on June 1, ORNL Director Thom Mason announced in an e-mail to staff on Thursday.

Ramesh will replace Thomas Zacharia, who left in August to take a science and education foundation based in Doha, Qatar.

Ramesh will also hold an appointment as a Governor’s Chair Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

“Ramesh has an exceptional record of accomplishment in fields that are well aligned with ORNL’s current scientific thrusts,” Mason said. “In particular, he is internationally recognized for his work on complex multifunctional oxide thin films, nanostructures, and heterostructures.”

He said Ramesh has published more than 400 papers in areas ranging from magnetic materials to high-temperature superconductors to advanced transmission electron microscopy techniques applied to materials characterization.

“These papers have been cited more than 35,000 times, making him one of the world’s most highly cited researchers,” Mason said.

Ramesh was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2011 “in recognition of his contributions to the science and technology of functional complex oxide materials.”

Mason said Ramesh has been a “driving force in moving innovation to the marketplace,” most recently directing the U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative and Solar Energy Technologies Program. He set the science and technology agenda for SunShot, established funding priorities, and oversaw solar research and development activities at the U.S. Department of Energy’s national labs.

He has also been director of the Berkeley Nanoscience and Nanoengineering Institute, and the Singapore-Berkeley Research Institute for Sustainable Energy.

Ramesh has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Madras University in Madras, India, and a doctorate in materials science from the University of California in Berkeley.

Jim Robert has served as interim deputy for science and technology while the lab looked for a replacement for Zacharia.

More information will be added as it becomes available.